Path to Increasing p-B11 Reactivity via ps and ns Lasers

Mehlhorn, Thomas A.; Labun, Lance; Hegelich, Bjorn Manuel; Margarone, Daniele; Gu, Ming Feng; Batani, Dimitri; Campbell, E. Michael; Hu, S. X.; Ramakrishna, Bhuvanesh

doi:10.1155/2022/2355629

Title: Path to Increasing p-B11 Reactivity via ps and ns Lasers

Journal Article · 01 January 2022 · Laser and Particle Beams

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/2355629 · OSTI ID:2422038

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^[5]; Campbell, E. Michael ^[6];

^[7]; Ramakrishna, Bhuvanesh

Melhorn Engineering Consulting Services, Beaverton, OR (United States); HB11 Energy Holdings Pty., Freshwater, NSW (Australia); OSTI
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Queen's University, Belfast (United Kingdom); The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, Dolni Brezany (Czechia). ELI Beamlines Facility
Prism Computational Sciences, Madison, WI (United States)
HB11 Energy Holdings Pty., Freshwater, NSW (United States); University of Bordeaux, Talence (France)
MCM Consulting, San Diego, CA (United States)
Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics

The Lawson criterion for proton-boron (p-11B) thermonuclear fusion is substantially higher than that for deuterium-tritium (DT) because the fusion cross section is lower and peaks at higher ion energies. The Maxwellian averaged p-11B reactivity peaks at several hundred keV, where bremsstrahlung radiation emission may dominate over fusion reactions if electrons and ions are in thermal equilibrium and the losses are unrestricted. Nonequilibrium burn has often been suggested to realize the benefits of this aneutronic reaction, but the predominance of elastic scattering over fusion reactivity makes this difficult to achieve. The development of ultrashort pulse lasers (USPL) has opened new possibilities for initiating nonequilibrium thermonuclear burns and significant numbers of p-11B alpha particles have been reported from several experiments. We present an analysis that shows that these significant alpha yields are the result of beam fusion reactions that do not scale to net energy gain. We further find that the yields can be explained by experimental parameters and recently updated cross sections such that a postulated avalanche mechanism is not required. We use this analysis to understand the underlying physics of USPL-driven nonequilibrium fusion reactions and whether they can be used to initiate fusion burns. We conclude by outlining a path to increasing the p-11B reactivity towards the goal of achieving ignition and describing the design principles that we will use to develop a computational point design.

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Research Organization:: Prism Computational Sciences, Inc., Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0022112

OSTI ID:: 2422038

Journal Information:: Laser and Particle Beams, Journal Name: Laser and Particle Beams Vol. 2022; ISSN 0263-0346

Publisher:: Cambridge University PressCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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